How can we design a platform capable of showcasing a historic event on a European scale? To support the celebrations of the Millennium of William the Conqueror, we developed, together with the Normandy Region, a multilingual Drupal portal that brings together events, thematic tours, and news within an accessible, efficient user experience tailored for an international audience.
Context and challenges
On the occasion of the millennium of the birth of William the Conqueror in 2027, the Normandy Region has launched an ambitious program to promote Norman heritage across Europe.
The objective is twofold:
- To bring together cultural, heritage, tourism, educational, and sports stakeholders around a shared program.
- To provide international visibility to several hundred events organized in France and in many European territories linked to Norman history.
To support this initiative, the Normandy Region wanted to have a Drupal digital platform capable of centralizing all of the programming, facilitating the discovery of events and promoting the European partnerships established as part of this exceptional celebration.
The challenges of the project
The future portal had to meet several major challenges:
- Accommodate a large volume of editorial and event-related content.
- Offer a multilingual experience for a European audience.
- Enable efficient search among events, tours, and cultural content.
- Integrate with third-party mapping and event management services.
UX/UI Design
Our UX design support
We supported the Normandy Region teams from the earliest design phases in order to define a user experience that is clear and tailored to the diversity of the target audiences.
Our work notably covered:
- UX benchmarking of leading cultural and event platforms.
- Analysis and optimization of the site structure.
- Design of the wireframes for the main user journeys.
- Facilitation of validation workshops with the project teams.
Art direction and UI Design
The art direction was based on a graphic charter provided by the Normandy Region.
The entire design was conceived to offer an immersive experience while ensuring excellent readability on all devices.
For example, to capture attention from the very first seconds, we designed an interactive hero. On the first scroll, the page does not move down immediately: it stays in place while the visual gradually evolves. Only once this transition is complete does the scrolling return to its normal behavior.
Main features
A multilingual Drupal site
The portal was designed from the outset to accommodate multiple languages: French, English, Italian. This architecture makes it possible to reach the European audiences concerned by the celebrations, while also simplifying translation workflows.
Enhancing events with Wemap
One of the main challenges of the project was to make the schedule easily accessible on a interactive map, through the integration of the tool Wemap.
We have put in place:
- The automated synchronization of the events.
- The use of geographic coordinates via Geolocation Field.
- Display of events as a list or interactive map.
Event data is regularly synchronized and then stored in Drupal in order to fully benefit from search, filtering, and search engine optimization features.
Advanced editorial management
Considering the importance of content needs, we have provided the Region with a comprehensive contribution environment including in particular revision management, content history, and version comparison.
Advanced search with Apache SolR
To make it easier to access a particularly rich program, we have integrated the search engine Apache Solr. Users can thus perform keyword searches and quickly access relevant content thanks to a comprehensive indexing of the site.
Accessibility and security
Particular attention paid to accessibility
The site was developed according to the requirements of RGAA 4.2.1 with particular attention paid to color contrasts, to keyboard navigation, to compatibility with assistive technologies, to content hierarchy and to the quality of the HTML code.
Security, compliance, and sovereignty
The project incorporates all the standards required by the Region:
- Compliance with the GDPR.
- Consent management via the institutional modules of the Normandy Region.
- Integration of Matomo for audience measurement.
A platform designed to last
Thanks to Drupal 10 and a modular architecture, the platform has a robust foundation capable of evolving with the Millénaire Guillaume schedule.
A digital platform serving a major European cultural project, designed to showcase the Norman heritage while delivering a modern, accessible, and high-performance user experience.
Do you have a Drupal project or a business platform to design?
Let's discuss your needs and imagine together an effective, scalable solution tailored to your users.
Project date : May 2025 - March 2026
Reminder URL : https://www.millenium.fr/
Normandy Region - Millenium Site
For more information, you can consult our case study on the subject.
